Minutes of the Meeting of the Sky Blue Trust held on 9 October 2007 at Hen Lane Social Club, Beacon Road, COVENTRY. 

 7.30pm 

Present:  

Board Members: Rachael Brown (Chair), Lionel Bird (Vice-Chair), Pat Raybould (Treasurer) Rachel King (Membership Secretary), Natalie Cox (Media Coordinator), Laura Armit (Secretary), Steve Barnett (Safety / SCG Representative), Pete Walden

 Members:  Lynn Hills, Karen Frost, Steve Williams, Nigel Eccles, Gurjeet Auyla, Rob Brindley, Tony Broughton, Carl Cook, Matt Evans, Kev Kelly  Apologies: Kev Monks 

Welcome and Introductions 

Rachael Brown opened the meeting by welcoming those who had not previously attended and introducing the other Board members.   

Background to the Trust 

Lionel Bird gave some background into the history of the Trust. 

The Sky Blue Trust is a non-confrontational independent supporters’ body for Coventry City Football Club.  It has been formed for four years and throughout that time has achieved a  number of things including helping raise funds to save the Academy, helping to form the Supporters Consultation Group which holds regular meetings with the Coventry City Football Club Board members and presenting the largest petition for the Ricoh Arena to be built, in October 2003. 

The Trust has ticked over for the last couple of years with a small number of members.  However, it was emphasised that should the football club go into administration, the Trust could be on hand to play a part. 

This is due to the fact that The Sky Blue Trust is part of Supporters Direct, an organisation funded by Football Stadia Improvement Fund –the partner organisation of the Football Foundation. To date there are over 100 Football Trusts across England, Wales and Scotland and around 13 Trusts have been involved in saving their football club. Supporters Direct has worked with Trusts at York, Lincoln, Chesterfield, Exeter, Notts County and Bury to name but a few. In all these instances Supporters Trusts have to-date survived administration and Supporters Trust involvement has been a crucial feature of that survival. It was therefore emphasised that it is imperative that as many supporters as possible join the Trust. 

Supporters Consultation Group (SCG) Update 

An emergency meeting of the Supporters Consultation Group took place on Monday 8 October.  Four members of the Trust Board were present at this meeting.  Those members gave an update from the meeting which included the background to the club’s current financial situation and involvement with ACL. 

It was emphasised that CCFC currently do not receive seven out of the top twenty revenue streams that most other Championship clubs have access to due to not owning the stadium. 

 It was also noted that the option to buy back shares in the Arena from the Higgs Charity had been transferred from CCFC to Geoffrey Robinson at the last AGM.  The current priority of the club was to put a plan together to ensure its short-term survival which would then enable more time to be given to finding a suitable potential investor.

 Meeting with Coventry City Council 

Sky Blue Trust Board members had met with Cllr Ken Taylor, leader of Coventry City Council and Cabinet Member for City Development Cllr Kevin Foster earlier this afternoon.  It was stressed that the meeting had been positive.  However, their view is that the real issue is about the trading position of the football club.   Although the Council emphasised that they do not want to see the football club go out of business, it was also emphasised that they cannot put public money into supporting the football club financially.  Further information on this meeting can be found here: 

http://www.skybluetrust.co.uk/content/view/116/2/  

Membership Update

 The Trust currently has 57 members. 

 It was noted that 32 members had joined since Friday in addition to the current 57. It was agreed that it was now essential for the Trust to gain as many members as possible by increasing publicity and general awareness of the Trust’s aims and abilities should the club go into administration.  

Next Steps: 

It was agreed that the position of the Trust must continue to be one of impartiality and fact finding.